misstenacity

fifi, I love you. Thank you for this thread. FYI, Steingarten has a chapter in one of his books about the very same "problem" that you're having - gratinizing everything he could get his hands on. Gratins rule. My favorite that I've personally made (I'm sure I would love a chard gratin but just haven't tried it yet) is leek, cheese, and green chile. Then again, I put green chile in damn near anything (even ice cream was a success), so there's my bias for you. Andrea http://tenacity.net

I have only done limited cooking in the outdoors, but I have a few reference books that have given me great ideas for future trips (book titles are listed from memory, but shouldn't be hard to find on Amazon): NOLS Outdoor Cookery Gorp, Glop, and Glue Stew The Well-Fed Backpacker I'd love to do a long backpacking trip this summer so I may actually be putting some of the ideas into practice. Andrea http://tenacity.net

On WW - is there any guidance or advice as to how to stagger the points consumption each day? From one of your days ("I have 14pts for dinner..."), it sounds like you eat more food towards the end of the day. I am not on WW but I do tend to eat more food earlier - perhaps 75-80% of my daily food is before dinner. Big breakfasts keep me sane. :-) Comments? I am really enjoying the blog so far - keep up the great work! Andrea http://tenacity.net

It drives me nuts that where I live (SW US), grapes are $3/lb throughout OUR winter, when its summer in Chile; and Chilean grapes are then $1/lb in OUR summer, when the U.S. & Mexican ones are in season and also $1/lb. Grrrr. Andrea http://tenacity.net

Several times I've tried to eat a "healthy" side dish for my main course, end up cooking some greens that are about to go bad for too long, or sauce them wrong, or something.... the results usually taste OK but not great, but how they look? Well, once I described it as "a garden vomited on my plate!" Andrea http://tenacity.net

I have noticed with some dismay that the current trio of coffee cup sizes at gas stations is 16-20-24, compared to the previous 12-16-20. Most of the time I really, truly, do not want to drink more than 12oz of gas station coffee (which is already 2 servings on its own right), so drinking 24oz of the stuff just baffles me. Unfortunately, I haven't noticed if the average price has gone up to correspond to the extra 4oz cups. Doesn't seem like it has. Andrea http://tenacity.net

A local restaurant has the ubiquitous "Death by Chocolate" item.... BUT, they named it that way to contrast it with the next item on the dessert list: "Life by Lemon". Perfect. Andrea http://tenacity.net

As a wee one I had Cream of Wheat and later on in high school we got instant oatmeal packets - whatever brand was on sale or the cheapest. (Do you remember the variety that included a "swirl-in jam" packet?) Now and since college I've liked Malt o Meal (which by the label is basically "cream of wheat and barley", or "hot ground up grape nuts"). Which reminds me that its been awhile since I've had hot Grape Nuts, and it explains why I like both. Oh, in college it was the Maple & Brown Sugar flavor, always. Now that's far far too sweet and I do mostly plain, but sometimes the Cocoa flavor and then add a bit of heavy cream to the bowl. Yum! I also adore any variety of oats that takes >5min to cook, so 'regular', steel cut, and groats make the menu. Andrea http://tenacity.net

That's funny you should mention sniffing vanilla. I used vanilla-scented body wash yesterday and had a huge vanilla/sugar craving after that that was only cured by Haagen Daz. Andrea http://tenacity.net

On weekends I follow a bit of a ritual and usually have 3 consumption phases - the first being a cup or two of coffee shortly after rising, the 2nd an hour after that, and one a few hours later (by now its nearly noon) with more "weight" (or we go out for breakfast/brunch). Today, I had coffee (w/ half & half only, no sugar) as per the custom, and then a bowl of yogurt with dried fruit and nuts: ....once that had settled I reheated some previously cooked oat groats with leftover pear crumble and walnuts. Warm food is definitely ideal for the 2nd breakfast, even if in caloric heft it might be lighter than the yogurt-granola combo. Andrea http://tenacity.net

To my continuing amazement, I too did well this year.... wow. -exquisite tea from Seattle in *silk* teabags -10 year aged balsamic from Zingerman's -homemade goodie trays including linzer torte, molasses cookies, red wine drops, and the best peanut butter cookies EVER. -jar of dried cayenne peppers from my Dad's garden -chile pepper oven mitt -Kuhn Rikon stainless pressure cooker -Bouchon -$30 to Trader Joe's -The Complete Asian Cookbook (Soloman) -On Food and Cooking -Roadfood -Eat Your Way Across the USA -Chez Panisse Cooking -Jean-Georges -Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone -Salt: a World History -a Farberware 2qt heavy-bottomed pot -a LID for my 2 small All-Clad 'open stock' pots Merry Happy Yadda Yadda..... :-) Andrea http://tenacity.net

Just happened to be reading this thread while eating Smucker's Natural PB out of the jar. Peanuts and salt. Yum. :-) Andrea http://tenacity.net

I'm in. I received Bouchon just yesterday, so I'll be using that. I've never done cassoulet, and have to confess that I don't even know what it all involves.... But I'm still in. :-) Oh, and I have a container of liquid gold - duck fat liberated from Xmas eve dinner - that I brought home with me back to NM. Hee! Andrea http://tenacity.net

Oh, man.... I WISH I would have taken a picture. I tried to do my eGulleters proud a few days ago by making a ..... LARB OMELET! :-) (2 eggs + 1/2 cup of leftover "5 star thai hot rating" larb from SukhoThai in Madison, WI) Andrea http://tenacity.net

Topping for Black Cake. Andrea http://tenacity.net

.....served with a bowl of Cafe au Lait. This is the "Classique" breakfast special at a local French bakery, for a whopping $3.95 Yum! Andrea http://tenacity.net

Pre-breakfast (upon rousing, before going for a run): LF yogurt w/ molasses & granola Breakfast (at work) Pre-cooked, frozen, then reheated oat groats w/ half & half, honey, and peanut butter. Still gurgly and uncomfortable from having that yogurt right before running - think I should stick to Malt-o-Meal as the ideal pre-breakfast. Andrea http://tenacity.net

On the soggy crust question, I use my "Misto" oil sprayer to coat the dough with a fine layer of olive oil before I put the tomato sauce on. Seems to do the trick. Obviously you could use any kind of fat, if you wanted a different flavor than olive oil or none at all. Andrea http://tenacity.net

I recently made fig-port with mint and thyme honey. The four flavors work well together (thanks to Culinary Artistry, my muse!), so if you don't want chunks you could infuse the ice cream with fig extract without the fruity bits, and then use the other 3 flavors in varying amounts. In mine I couldn't taste the mint very much, but the honey flavor was very nice. Despite using milk and half & half as a base rather than cream, the resulting product is VERY rich so small portions are actually achievable. Andrea http://tenacity.net

I made a chart of approximated cost per gram for common protein sources. When I'm trying to eat healthy its actually hard to get enough protein (since my amount of veggies and salads goes up and takes the place of much meat). The general results? Tofu is more expensive than you think, as is cottage cheese & yogurt. Eggs and chicken still rule the day. Here's the chart (and costs I used for my math): Protein (cents per gram): Eggs ($1.49/doz): 1.7 Chicken - boneless skinless breast ($2.99/lb): 2.0 Tofu ($1.99/lb): 6.2 Whey powder mix ($16/lb): 5.5 Pinto Beans ($.99/can): 3.0 Cottage Cheese ($1.99/16oz): 4.2 Yogurt ($1.99/quart): 4.1 Couscous ($1.49/lb dry): 2.5 Beef, ground, 85% ($2.99/lb): 2.5 Tuna, canned ($.99/can): 4.2 Andrea http://tenacity.net

I'm also putting together my LIST of stuff to make for the holidays, cookies and everything else. I was talking with a friend about peanut butter cookies and she mentioned getting a recipe from her grandmother that was "like peanut butter fudge" and had no flour. The gist was gotten across and I looked up a few other flourless peanut butter cookie recipes online and then tweaked to produce: ALMOND UNSPARKLE COOKIES (with apologies to Thomas Haas) (makes just 2 dozen small cookies, so scale up if necessary) 1 cup dark brown sugar 1 cup almond butter (if unsalted, also add 1/2tsp salt) 1/2 t baking soda 1T kirschwasser (cherry brandy....optional, or could use orange extract instead) 2 eggs Combine everything gently. Chill dough 1 hour in fridge. Preheat oven to 350. Drop cookies 1T at a time onto parchment; bake 7-10 min, use your judgement. 7min for me was VERY soft and chewy. Cool completely before moving them, especially if you underbaked. Want some good news? Each cookie is 110 calories (half of which is outstanding-for-you almond fat), and tastes like a Haas "sparkle cookie", but not chocolate and not sparkly (since you don't roll in sugar before baking). One final note - I used half dark brown sugar and half Splenda and they turned out excellently. If you do that they are 95 calories each. Enjoy!!! Andrea http://tenacity.net

YES!!! Love those cheapo ice cream sandwiches with squishy chocolate cookie... Andrea http://tenacity.net

Adjustable clippies seem to be a good idea - no need to get rid of all existing jars & containers. Many of my containers are already glass, so not having to do a mass-transfer seems convenient. Anyone tried something like this? I just also thought about having clear glass spices mounted on the wall - the light permeation could be a problem. What about putting them inside a medicine cabinet (preferably one without a mirrored door!) mounted in the kitchen? Hmm. Great topic, btw. My poor spices are currently a little too near to the stove for my liking, and the cabinet with the overflow is too far away from the prep area. Andrea http://tenacity.net

Slow cooking oatmeal? Followed by 'tummy' tea - there are lots of varieties, but all seem to include mint(s), cinnamon, fennel, ginger, etc. Andrea http://tenacity.net

Muesli w/ cottage cheese (I'm currently out of yogurt/kefir). Coffee w/ half&half in staggering amounts (both the overall coffee volume and the half/half to coffee ratio). Later morning.... protein bar, from a boatload of them snagged at Big Lots for $.49 each(!). I guess the Atkins backlash is in full swing.... Andrea http://tenacity.net